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Medical
treatments are typically designed using a one-size-fits-all approach, often resulting
in serious side effects. In USA alone, more than 700,000 people each year
experience serious drug reactions, and more than 117,000 die from them,
according to the FDA. While the emergence of precision medicine primarily has
focused on selecting the right drug for the right patient, drug dosage is often
overlooked and rarely optimized for the individual. A more individualized dose
could not only help eliminate potential side effects, but boost the drug’s
efficacy.

The San
Francisco-based startup InsightRX is determined to provide an individualized
understanding of a patient’s response to treatment, and has developed a
software platform that help guide treatment decision-making. The clinical
decision support tool leverage mathematical models, patient demographics,
physiological characteristics, genomic data, drug concentrations and biomarkers
to calculate drug and dose recommendations. Drug concentration and biomarker
data are collected over time to get a deeper understanding of patient response,
enabling treatment optimization. And as more data is collected, the algorithms
that guide the treatment recommendations will learn and become more precise. The
technology is available as an easy-to-use, cloud-based web application that can
be accessed directly through the electronic medical record at the
point-of-care. It is currently being developed for a handful of drugs, but the
software will eventually be applied to a broad range of medications.

The
‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to drug design and treatment results in hundreds
of thousands of deaths each year, and billions of dollars in costs. That’s
because how much of a drug enters the bloodstream and how quickly it exits the
body is influenced by multiple individual factors, such as patient demographics
or genetics. And with so many variables, choosing the best medication and dose
can be a matter of trial and error. InsightRX’s innovative technology help
personalize treatment, including how much to take, how frequently, and for how
long. For some patients, taking half a dose four times a day might work much
better than full doses twice a day.

Although
developing these models to optimize dosing is a complex process that needs to
be refined and validated through clinical trials, a more precise, personalized approach
could have a major impact on patient care and health outcomes. It could improve
treatment efficacy, reduce side effects, and prevent thousands of deaths each
year. In fact, multiple studies have shown that individualized dosing lead to
significantly better survival rates and improved outcomes, and could
potentially help reduce associated healthcare costs.

InsightRX is
a spin-off from UCSF and was founded in 2015 by Sirj Goswami, Ron Keizer and
Ranvir Mangat. The startup has partnered with multiple clinical centers,
including UCSF and Stanford Medical Center, to pilot their technology, and has
previously received a grant from the Clinical & Translational Science Institute at UCSF. They have also raised a seed funding round with an
undisclosed amount from Launchpad Digital Health and Plug&Play, two
accelerator programs based in San Francisco and Sunnyvale, CA.